Ducks GM says he's OK with defenseman-heavy roster

ANAHEIM – Ducks general manager Bob Murray made some moves Sunday but what he didn't do — or hasn't done yet — was much more significant.

With Andy Sutton coming off injured reserve and playing his first game since the opener, the Ducks are carrying eight defensemen, and it would appear that the next move would be to sacrifice someone to clear the logjam.

Not so fast.

"I kind of like it," Murray said before the Ducks' 4-2 loss to Edmonton. "I think we're healthy on defense. A couple of guys aren't going to play. I think that is very good in our situation right now.

"It's proven you need defensemen because you get (injuries). Look at our schedule. We're going to need players."

Paul Mara and Sheldon Brookbank drew the press box assignment Sunday, but it would figure Murray won't keep eight defenders for a long period. Still, the Ducks executive said he's not looking at moving someone via trade or through waivers for the moment.

"I kind of like our defense right now," Murray said of keeping eight. "I have no problem with that right now."

Murray did deal away a defenseman in a two-for-two swap with Philadelphia, sending Danny Syvret and center prospect Rob Bordson to the Flyers for minor league wingers Patrick Maroon and David Laliberte.

Syvret, 25, was playing at the club's AHL team in Syracuse after appearing in six games with the Ducks, where he scored a goal and had an assist while rookie Cam Fowler was out of the lineup because of injury.

The word out of Syracuse was that Syvret didn't handle the demotion well and expressed his disappointment in an interview with the Syracuse Post-Standard.

"I was sort of getting frustrated with how things are going," Syvret told the newspaper. "I thought I played well in Anaheim. I thought I would have liked to have played better here. I was struggling mentally here."

Maroon, 22, is also getting a fresh start after being sent home by the AHL's Adirondack Phantoms for what the parent club Flyers termed as "behavioral issues" and "attitude problems."

Murray said "we did our homework" on Maroon but was satisfied after talking with Flyers GM Paul Holmgren and others who coached the winger, who had five goals and three assists in nine games with the Phantoms.

"He's getting a second chance," Murray said. "And I'm sure the young man knows that. I fully expect him to keep the straight and narrow here."

Meanwhile, Sutton was happy to finish his first full game with his new team after sitting out the past six weeks because of a broken right thumb suffered in the second period of a season-opening loss to Detroit.

To activate Sutton, the Ducks opened up a roster spot by putting left wing Josh Green on non-roster waivers.

"It felt good to be out there playing," Sutton said. "It was the wrong result, but it felt good to come back in the lineup."

DUCKS BREAK

The Ducks took advantage of a huge break in the second period when Edmonton defenseman Theo Peckham was whistled for a delay-of-game penalty even though television replays showed his clearing attempt sailed through an open camera hole in the Plexiglas.

Bobby Ryan scored on the resulting power play and Saku Koivu tied the score at 2-2 just 22 seconds later.

"Obviously it helped us a little bit," Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf said. "I didn't even know it went through the hole. I still thought it went over the glass.

Referee Stephen Walkom made the call and NHL senior officiating manager Bob Hall acknowledged it was a mistake.

"What happened in real time on the ice was the puck went out of play," Hall said. "The referee that was right in the corner didn't see how it left the ice. He went and conferred with two of the other officials on the ice.

"They put the pieces of the puzzle together and they came out with it was shot out, which we all know now in seeing it on the replay that it was not the correct call.

Hall also said that it is not a reviewable play and that "our video review process doesn't allow us to do stuff like that."

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